Monster Company Tycoon - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Monster Company Tycoon
Chapter 11
The Dungeon’s First Opening, and the First Successful Defense.
For monsters who had done nothing but take beatings from Challengers, it seemed to be an invaluable victory.
“We won!”
“Hurrah!”
All of them embraced one another, jumping and celebrating their success with a single voice.
And yet… I couldn’t pour cold water on them by pointing out that their opponents were merely two children.
The moment I saw on the monitor that the children had collapsed, I headed for the 1st Floor.
“What do we do with the unconscious Challengers?”
I hurried to check the children’s condition, and was relieved to find no serious injuries.
“Obviously, we take anything worth money!”
Brownie spoke with complete confidence, and I found myself doubting my own ears.
“What…? That’s basically robbery.”
“It’s their fault for bringing valuable things into a Dungeon!”
What if we got sued for something like that? Ah, but this isn’t the world I used to live in, so maybe such things don’t happen here….
“And it’s an unspoken rule—when you go down, you lose everything. All the adventurers know it. Those bastards tear apart the pockets of defeated monsters, so why couldn’t we do the same? There are even some who strip every last piece of underwear! Such vicious people!”
The monsters who had been celebrating a moment ago approached me with tears welling up. I hurriedly removed my glasses and tucked them into my pocket to greet them.
“Manager, thank you. Thanks to you, I finally got to experience what victory is.”
Goblin, who had worked so hard playing a cruel monster against the children, wiped away tears streaming down his face with his arm.
So winning against anyone at all could be this joyful…. How many times had they lost….
In that moment, a wave of pity swelled in my chest, and then….
“Come on, hurry up and strip them! Strip them clean! Let’s fill up the Reward Room too!”
Brownie’s shout doused my sympathy in an instant.
“The Reward Room, ah…!”
A false Reward Room created to deceive and protect the Sacred Object.
Currently nothing but dust rolled through it, and it served no function whatsoever.
So this was how you could fill it temporarily—by looting unconscious adventurers.
“Or you could toss the Spoils to the ones who worked hard, if you prefer.”
“Hmm…?”
Among all the monsters, only Skeleton actually wore anything that could be called “equipment.”
If I assigned identification codes in interview order, that would make him Skeleton 1.
When I asked if they had any proper names, they all gasped in shock.
Names could only be granted by the Demon God once a monster rose to Upper-tier.
So every monster here was simply Lower-tier Goblin 1, 2, 3… and Skeleton 1, 2, 3….
In any case, distributing usable equipment to the monsters would cost money. With already-fixed expenditures for wages, equipping staff proportional to their numbers was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
Brownie had even argued against it—what difference would equipment make to such weak creatures anyway?
A truly heartless and ruthless fairy.
“Something worth taking….”
Soothing the pricks of conscience, I first retrieved the weapons the children had been carrying.
Two crude Wooden Swords smudged with hand grime.
No matter how I thought about it, these weren’t items suited for the Reward Room, so I gave them to the Skeletons as Spoils.
Despite receiving such worthless weapons, they danced with delight at the gift.
I was about to slip my hand toward a Leather Plate—something strapped to a body instead of armor—when it happened.
Zzzt.
A sharp static shock tingled at my fingertips, and something felt like it had blocked me.
“Ouch….”
“That’s the Sacred Object warning you. If you provoke it further, the Curse will break and the Challengers could wake up.”
Brownie spoke in a tone dripping with regret.
“What? But just now you made it sound like we could strip everything bare.”
“If there were a monster with a Looting Certification, we could’ve cleaned them out thoroughly—minimizing disturbance, quiet and quick, taking everything an adventurer has on them, knowing exactly where they hide their valuables. Too bad. I thought we could at least get a Potion.”
Looting was a term I recognized from games—the act of acquiring items from a target.
“There’s a certification for that too…?”
I’d thought it was basic, but apparently even that required credentials.
“The Sacred Object’s power is weak. For now, it seems you’re limited to looting just once yourself.”
“Just once!?”
I should’ve known sooner—then I would’ve searched the pockets instead of settling for those pathetic swords! Maybe I could’ve found a single coin… Wait, was I really thinking like a petty thief now?
I’d become a corrupt adult actually considering robbing children!
I sighed silently to myself.
“Manager, once the Challengers are looted, we’ll move them to the Respawn Room.”
The lower-tier Goblins carefully lifted the unconscious children into their arms.
The Respawn Room was a separate space adjacent to the Lobby—where Challengers regained consciousness after losing their minds.
By the rules, monsters could not set foot directly in the Lobby while Challengers were present in the Dungeon. Yet leaving incapacitated Challengers sprawled across the Dungeon floor indefinitely wasn’t an option either.
So instead of passing through the Lobby itself, the monsters transported the unconscious Challengers through a Secret Passage that connected to the Respawn Room. When they awoke, they could exit directly through the Lobby to the outside world.
These monsters had Dungeon experience, so they understood the layout better than I did. They spoke naturally of moving the children there without my having to ask.
“What if the children realize their Wooden Swords are gone and come back to challenge us again?”
“They can’t return to the Dungeon until the Sacred Object’s Curse wears off.”
“Ah….”
So there’s a Re-entry Lock Penalty in effect for a set period?
“If they tried to challenge again in injured bodies, that would be reckless. It’s a system designed to protect adventurers. On the other hand, there’s no point squeezing someone dry twice—so it’s also a way of saying, go out there, fill your pockets, and come back later.”
The Dungeon truly was operated with systematic precision.
The Goblins finished moving the children to the Respawn Room, where the children woke from their sleep on the cold floor before their mouths could become twisted and left the Dungeon.
Their slumped shoulders looked so pitiful.
They seemed to have arrived at the Dungeon with such grand aspirations, and this newly opened Dungeon had crushed those dreams flat.
After all the visitors had gone, the monsters—without anyone telling them to—brought out worn Cleaning Tools and began clearing away the aftermath of battle.
Their movements were so practiced that this must be something they did regularly.
“Scrub that spot hard! Blood hardens and smells if you leave it! First priority is cleanliness, second priority is cleanliness! Do you want to spend your time in a filthy Dungeon?”
“Yes! Understood!”
Incidentally, all the worn Cleaning Tools had been salvaged from the garbage heap by Brownie. That’s why their condition was poor and their efficiency left much to be desired.
“If there are cracks, patch them up! We don’t need problems cropping up during your battles!”
“Yes, absolutely right, sir!”
I fell into thought watching Brownie drive the monsters onward.
‘This battle turned out to be an excellent opportunity to verify the Dungeon’s system from start to finish.’
Though the opponents had been too weak to glean much combat data, there was a world of difference between merely hearing about the Dungeon’s operations and witnessing them firsthand.
When a Challenger enters the Dungeon, they fight a monster, and when fear reaches its peak and they suffer defeat, the Sacred Object’s Curse immediately activates, rendering them unconscious.
In that window, we collect the Spoils from the fallen Challenger—but only to a degree where the Curse doesn’t dissipate—then move them to the Respawn Room in the Lobby.
Once the Challenger awakens, the Sacred Object’s Curse prevents them from challenging the Dungeon again until it wears off, so they leave hoping to return another day.
‘If the number of staff grows, I should divide us into departments and manage each aspect more precisely. There’s no guarantee every battle will be this leisurely.’
In addition to a combat team handling battles, it would be useful to have a facilities team that specializes in creating the Dungeon’s environment—like trap installation.
Come to think of it, Slime already functioned as the facilities team.
And we’d need a support team to handle the aftermath of combat too.
A retrieval team to collect the Spoils and transport the Challengers, a cleaning team to restore the Dungeon after battles have left it in ruins, and so on….
If we operated in departments like a real company, management would be easier and we could run the Dungeon much more efficiently.
“For now, we don’t have enough staff to divide into departments, so each of us just has to juggle multiple roles. You’ll all have to bear with it.”
One person handling personnel, accounting, general affairs, cleaning, preparing lunch, washing dishes, doing the director’s son’s homework for him….
It’s drifting further and further from typical company work, but still—everything had to fall on my shoulders, just like the old days before all this.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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